


It's the Feeling of the Thing

by InsominiacArrest



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Empath, F/F, Femslash, Hurt/Comfort, Kindness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 16:17:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10925454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsominiacArrest/pseuds/InsominiacArrest
Summary: Nebula ends up having to recuperate on the GG ship after a nasty battle in the hunt for Thanos, Mantis ends up engaging her and they share the awkward moments between an Empath and someone who is hurting a lothurt/comfort AU





	It's the Feeling of the Thing

Big dark black eyes, like reverse suns that swallowed light whole, pupils the size of asteroids, little orbs that followed her like homing beacons as she tried to creep across the brig. She didn’t know why this girl had such large eyes.

And she would pay good money at this point for them to _stop._

Nebula crouched next to one of the Guardians of the Galaxy’s couches and tried to finish fixing her arm. And then her leg. And then maybe her ankle if it didn’t stop lying at an odd angle anytime soon.

Nebula held her hand steady as she worked the ‘welder pen’ across her circuitry, mending the loose wires and gashes in the metal. The ink pools followed her movements, Nebula grit her teeth.

She flicked her gaze up, the new member of their whatever group had her hands folded in front of her and stood stalk still directly in front of her. They both seemed to tilt their heads to the side at the same time.

She keeps staring.

Nebula narrowed her eyes, “Can you knock it off?” She snapped as ‘Caterpillar’ or whatever kept fixating on her.

The girl frowned slightly, “What?”

“The,” Nebula wrinkled her nose, “The looks. Stop it. I’m not a sideshow.” She spit again in the hopes she might bugger off somewhere, the universe always had to be in danger, they all must have something to do.

The girl blinked, “Look at what?” She was all eyes and hundred mile stares.

Nebula shifted from side to side, “Just stop... It’s annoying.” She just blinked back at her.  
  
“Mantis doesn’t know social interaction!” Drax called from inside his room and Nebula almost snarled.

“Sounds like your guys's problem.” 

Mantis looked between the two of them, she brought a hand up over her large moon eyes and covered them, her little mouth tugged down. _Didn’t know social interaction_ , Nebula just shook her head.

“I’m not a sideshow,” She grumbles again to herself, “Why would you even stare like that?”  
  
Mantis takes her hand off of her eyes quickly and smiles off into the distance at her, “I wasn’t staring, which Gamora also says is rude, but I wasn’t.”

Nebula’s eyebrow twitched at the mention of her sister, “Oh then, what are you doing? Practicing your ‘glare’?” She a had hunch maybe this girl didn’t even know how to glare.

Mantis put her hands forward and began to teeter forward, “Noticing.”

“Noticing what?” She asks, feeling her nerves reaching their limit.

“You’re very pretty!” Nebula just blinked, “This is pretty, right Drax?” Mantis called out into the other room excitedly.

“No!” Drax called back.

Nebula had begun to frown, she immediately snapped her ‘welder pen’ shut and shoved herself to her feet, bent ankle and all.

“I’m going to the cargo bay.” She declared, she didn’t need all this noise anyway. She only agreed to board her sister's ship as a brief refuge so she could fix herself. And then leave again.

“Wait,” Mantis was gesturing forward, “Wouldn’t this be pretty Drax?” Mantis was approaching Drax’s door, Nebula was turning.

“No, she is very hideous, like you. But beauty is cheap Mantis! You can tell Nebula that as well, Rocket is also a truly gross creature, and all of you manage to not be throttled on the spot when entering rooms...”  
  
Nebula rolled her eyes, stalking out of the brig and letting their voices fade away behind her. She takes the dimmer hallways to the cargo bay she boarded on, she hoped her sister was too busy to bother her, flirting with her unnecessary man-child or something.

Didn’t any of them have something better to do?

She opens the bay and inches over to the side, trying to find an adequate crate to sit on. She hops onto a red upside tub and tries to calculate how long it would take to mend the hours: something like 4 more hours at least.

She sort of wished she accepted their offering for assistance, but it was humiliating enough to show up at their doorstep battered and limping in the first place. She supposed it was lucky she almost liked her sister now.

She adjusts her bent ankle and looks back at the hole in her leg. She goes back to welding this practically new arm. Nebula clears her mind as she works and repeats the next coordinates in her mind like a mantra.

She doesn’t hear the door slide open, engrossed in her healing process- there was one stubborn wire and a couple fingers not reacting in time. Watching them react with a five second delay each time made her want to hit her head on something.

“Hello! I have come to apologize.”  
  
Nebula jumps, nearly tossing her welder across the room and stabbing the nearest crate, she hunches over as she sees the Mantis girl standing a couple feet away from her. This time her expression was a little somber with the hints of an attempted smile.

Nebula does not smile back.

“I don’t need it.” She finally says as she registers the statement.

Mantis shuffles forward slowly, “No. Star Lord also says it is custom to apologize when you’ve offended someone.”

Nebula says and looks back down at the floor, “Don’t.” She mulls over the words in her mouth, “I’m not offended.” She squares her jaw, “And you don’t have to call him Star Lord, no one actually does.” She snorts, “idiot.”  
  
Mantis cocks her head to the side, “That’s what he told me to call him!” She chirps, “And I would like a name like that too, when it’s right.”  
  
Nebula screws up her features, “What? Star Lord? Groot? _Tazerface_?” Nebula could roll her eyes again.

“I was thinking Cosmos Lady! Or She who Strikes Fear and also Glows, or maybe, Empress? Planet?” She seemed to be contemplative, as if naming yourself was just the very thing to do.

Nebula looks up at the ceiling, “Empress Planet.” She snorts and shakes her head as Mantis gives her unrelenting gaze, “Look, Mantis is fine.” She finally says, “And don’t let these fools tell you to call yourself something useless. They do enough pointless things as it is, It’s just a distraction.”  
  
Mantis sits down next to Nebula and peers up at her, “Do we not like being distracted?”

Nebula lowers her head and goes back to welding her arm, this girl really didn’t know social cues, “There are bigger things in the universe then making a buck.” She says bitterly, “Taking down my father for one.” She adds the last part airily.

“Ah, oh yeah,” Mantis puts her finger in the air, “Gamora said you were tracking him. The blue sister who would tear this father apart.” Mantis gives something like a giggle.

Nebula raises her eyebrows, she sits up a little straighter, “That’s correct. I’m going to tear him apart.” She almost gets the last wires to cooperate, “It’s been weeks now, non-stop.” She scowls, “I was so close.”

Mantis reaches forward, “For weeks? You must be tired. Ego only went for a couple days at a time like that.”  
  
Nebula shrugged, “I’m used to it. What I was made for, used until her expected me to be done.” The thoughts tumbled through her head like deadly boulders, she shuts them out quickly.

Mantis was creeping forward again, “I could help. Like, an apology for angerying you.”  
  
Nebula blew air out of her nose, “I’m not angry. And I don’t need help.”

Mantis was sticking her lip out, “Sleep makes you a better warrior. It’s true, I slept eleven hours once and took down the last tuber worm. With a rifle!” The girl was glowing again.

Nebula gave the smallest of smiles, she doesn’t point out that tubeworms were generally only a couple feet long, Nebula finishes her arm. “Sure. Eleven hours, someday.” She humors her.

“Okay!” Nebula should have predicted that, seen it coming, but Mantis was close and Nebula was still getting her other hand back online and holding the pen. She touches her face.

The touch is feather soft, a sensation like a memory or a spectre you never pinned down.

Nebula gasps and she snatches the girl's wrist in an iron grip. It was a little too late, her fingertips grazed the side of Nebula’s cheek, the last one with skin. They stare at each other for a moment, eyes as large as dark moons and Nebula’s own churning gut. Mantis’s eyes brim with silvery wobbling tears.

Her eyes went wide and Nebula bears her teeth, she throws her hand aside, “I didn’t mean now! I’m not…” She huffs and searches the air, “I didn’t meant right now!” Nebula yells again, Mantis’s eyes were brimming over, “Fuck.” Nebula curses quickly.

Mantis’s mouth hung open, she opens her arms wide, “That’s.” The girl gasps, “So much pain.”  
  
Nebula steps backward, “It’s nothing new.”  
  
Mantis clutched at her chest, “It hurts.”

“I know.”  
  
“Here,” Mantis was walking forward with her wide arms, “Come here.”  
  
Nebula takes another step back, “No. That was your own fault, live with it.”  
  
Mantis was crying, “That is so much,” She is getting closer, “I never knew- I never knew! Please, Quil said hugging is good for pain.”

Nebula was contemplating pushing her away, or maybe some light stabbing, “I don’t need ‘a hug’.” She grunts, “I’m not soft like him.”  
  
Mantis was wiping at her eyes, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. This is so awful. You didn’t deserve it.”  
  
Nebula’s heel hit the back of the wall, “I know that.” She spits, “That’s why I’m going to destroy him, my father.” Her voice breaks softly, “And then...I’ll be done.”  
  
Mantis was cornering her, “You don’t need to! You could join us, we’ll do it together.” Her eyes the size of dinner plates her looking up at her, Nebula shivered, “You don’t need to be…’done’.”

Maybe they both knew what Nebula meant by that.

Before Nebula could jump or maybe kick or scream even, Mantis’s arms wrapped around her slowly. Nebula froze for a moment.

Nebula stood perfectly still, she proceeded to experience the most awkward hug of her life. Though, to be fair it was one of the first hugs of her life.

Mantis looped her arms around her waist at weird angles and leaned forward, perhaps she wasn’t too familiar with hugs either. She rested her wet face in Nebula’s collarbone. Nebula didn’t know if she should pat her head or just count the seconds down until this was over.

They stand still in the middle of the cold bay as Mantis hugs her and weeps softly into her skin. She didn’t really know what to do. They stand there for a solid two minutes, Nebula’s arms at her side with Mantis pulling her close..

Mantis squeezed her around the middle, “Do you feel better?” She asked as Nebula shifted from side to side.

“No.”  
  
Mantis hiccuped and dragged her closer, “I didn’t do it right then. I can do them until you do though!”  
  
Nebula’s mouth hung open, Mantis kept holding on, Nebula felt the faintest warmth rising in her cheeks, “No…” She said with a rasp, protesting weakly.

Mantis tried to shuffle them around, but they remained next to the cool wall, Nebula slowly, slowly, puts her chin on Mantis’s head, tucking it delicately under her.

She feels the other girl’s softly breathing against her chest, and one of them was glowing. Her skin was soft, easy to puncture, her entire vitals exposed and Nebula doesn’t doing anything about it.

Most of all she was warm, like sunsets or blood.

She let’s Mantis hug her very very long time and Nebula’s brain runs around in dog circles as if it were chasing its tail. She didn’t need this, she tells herself she didn’t need this. She stays in place. She tries to chastise herself, she had important things to do. She stays in place.

Mantis lets her go ever so slowly and Nebula doesn’t know how to feel, the girl’s cheeks were still wet.

“There.” Mantis pats her shoulder, “there, there. Better.”  
  
Nebula makes a face, “They’re teaching you weird things.”  
  
Mantis just grins, “I could teach you.”  
  
Nebular makes a face, “What could they possible teach me?”  
  
Mantis shrugs, “How to steal a new arm, or dance.” She proclaims and Nebula tried to turn away. Mantis reaches for her, “My favorite is the macarena.”

“I’ll pass.” She faces in the direction of her ship, “I have places to be.” She envisions her mission clearly in her head, justice, a head on a platter, an end.

Mantis makes a small noise behind her and Nebula hesitates, she should...tell her sister she’s leaving.

But she turns toward Mantis on a whim, “but…” She chokes on the air, “Maybe next time.”  
  
Mantis follows after her, they trot out of the bay, “Quil is teaching me the shuffle board. And ‘break dance’.”  
  
Nebula walks beside her, “Don’t let them break dance you.” She says sternly, making a mental note to kick him.

“Not like that,” Mantis skips next to her, “But I think you might like ballroom.”  
  
Nebula shakes her head, “Let’s not try and touch again.” She huffs and they pause in the corridor before she ship, “You shouldn’t cry.” She doesn’t know why she says it, Mantis strokes her arm and she tries not to flinch away.

“I’ll help you sleep. Next time.” Mantis’s face scrunches up, “You need it more than any of the rest of them.” Mantis reaches up, Nebula doesn’t know where to move. A soft peck presses against her cheek. Something in Nebula’s brain simply stops. “Quil said that helped too.” The girl gave a small smile, almost sly, “Among other things.”  
  
Nebula is left standing there this time, feeling dumb with her mouth open and watching Mantis go back down to her feet.

“Don’t need…Sleep.” Nebula tries to get out, her senses flaring, Mantis just shrugs and almost looks to touch her again.

  
“Next time.” She says again simply and Nebula tries to get her legs to work so she can reach the ship bay. Next time.


End file.
